Pancocojams showcases the music, dances, language practices, and customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world.

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Saturday, February 22, 2014

More Caribbean Cheerleading Videos

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases ten video examples of various styles of cheerleading in the Caribbean. My general comments about these and other YouTube Caribbean cheerleading videos that I've watched are also included in this post. In alphabetical order, the Caribbean nations from which the cheerleading squads showcased in this post come from are Anguilla, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, recreational, and aesthetic purposes.

DISCLAIMER: These videos are selected to demonstrate cheerleading styles and not necessarily to showcase the best cheer performances in a particular competition or exhibition.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos, and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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EDITOR'S COMMENT ABOUT CHEERLEADING IN THE CARIBBEAN
I believe that since at least the 1980s a complete categorization of cheerleading styles should include traditional (gymnastic) cheerleading, dance style cheerleading (which mostly includes dance steps from R&B/Hip-Hop music and is performed to that music as well as to American Pop music), and African American originated stomp & shake cheerleading.

I'd categorize most Caribbean cheerleading that I've watched as dance style cheerleading combined with gymnastic cheerleading. Only a few videos of Caribbean cheerleaders that are published on YouTube to date performed gymnastic cheerleading without any dance movements. A few cheerleading videos from Jamaica of high school squads whose routines appear to me to be heavily influenced by African American body patting form of stepping*. However, to date, I've not found any videos of Caribbean cheerleaders doing any "up-stomp" (high stepping) or "jigga pop" (fast double shakes of the hips) that most stomp & shake cheerleaders do. That said, I've noticed a number of Caribbean cheerleading squads chanting taunting cheers although I usually can't understand most of what was being said. While saying those chants those cheerleaders lean forward in an intimidating stance which in the United States is stereotypically associated with African American female's arguments and that is found during or at the end of many stomp & shake cheerleading chants & cheers.

In addition to American Pop music and R&B/Hip-Hop music & dance steps, Caribbean dance style cheerleading includes dancehall Reggae music and the sensuous hip wining movement. Although female stomp & shake cheerleaders perform hip shaking moves, I don't believe that they do wine. While wining would be considered to be highly risqué in most American dance style cheerleading routines, that hip gyrating movement & other dancehall Reggae dance moves seem to be standard performance practices in Caribbean dance style cheerleading.

*By stepping I mean the foot stomping movements that originated with and are most closely associated with historically Black (African American) Greek lettered fraternities and sororities.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
These videos are presented in chronological order based on their posting dates with the oldest videos given first.

Example #1: Purple House Cheerleaders [Anguilla]

vertical8pro, Uploaded on Apr 8, 2011

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Example #2: Cheerleading (High School) 2011 Jamaica [Jamaica]

danceja, Uploaded on Jul 4, 2011

Jamfit National Cheerleading Competition July 2, 2011. Performances from High Schools across Jamaica. St. Andrew High, Campadown, Clan Carty, Port Antonio, St. Thomas, Obalin, St. Hughs, Meadowbrook and more... www.danceja.com Look out for Prep School performance clips COW FOOT and SPLICE Dance Moves Tippa
-snip-
A commenter noted that "cow foot" was the name of one of the dances that was done in the beginning of the video. Presumably, the other dance move or moves that are given in this summary statement were also done in the beginning of this video or at other times during the video. Also, other commenters wrote, in essence, that video showed the ways that Jamaicans do cheerleading, and indicated that Jamaican cheerleading shouldn't be compared with the USA. WARNING: As is the case with many YouTube viewer comment threads, a number of the comments include profanity.

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About Me

I'm an African American mother, grandmother, & retired human services administrator. For more than forty years I have shared adapted West African stories with audiences in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
I have four blogspots: pancocojams, zumalayah, cocojams2, and .Civil Rights Songs. Much of the content of these blogs were previously found on my cocojams and jambalayah cultural websites. I curate all of these blogs on a voluntary basis.
Each of these blogs have the primary goal of raising awareness about cultural aspects of African American culture and of other Black cultures throughout the world, particularly in regards to music & dance traditions.
Viewer comments are welcome on my blogspots.